1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic transfer method, a magnetic transfer apparatus, a magnetic recording medium and a magnetic record/reproduction system, and in particular to a magnetic transfer method, a magnetic transfer apparatus, a magnetic recording medium and a magnetic record/reproduction system suitable for transferring a magnetic information pattern such as format information from a master disk to a magnetic transfer disk having a magnetic layer formed of a perpendicular magnetization film.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a magnetic record reproduction system, in order to realize miniaturization and high volume, tends to be higher in recording density. In particular, in the field of hard disk drives which are representative magnetic recording systems, technologies are advancing rapidly.
An approach to increase in such recording density includes manufacturing a magnetoresistive element head (MR head) for a magnetic head, which allows a pitch of tracks in magnetic recording medium to be narrower, and therefore, in order to allow the magnetic head to accurately scan a narrow track to provide a higher S/N of a regenerative signal, a tracking servo technology of the magnetic head becomes important. Then, a current hard disk drive is provided with an area in which a servo signal for tracking, address information, a regenerative clock signal and the like are recorded in advance at regular, angular intervals on a disk thereof, and then the magnetic head can accurately track by confirming and correcting a position of the head while reproducing these signals.
Recording the servo signal for tracking or the address signal etc. in advance is called “preformat recording”, and generally is performed at the beginning because it is a reference when information is recorded or reproduced on a magnetic recording medium. At present, the preformat recording is performed sequentially by accurately controlling the position and therefore it takes a lot of time, and also, because a dedicated servo recording apparatus is considerably expensive, a problem arises that costs of a magnetic recording medium or a magnetic record reproduction system are very high.
Then, a magnetic transfer system for this preformat recording is proposed in that the signals are transferred in batch using a master disk. This system can carry out the preformat recording in a short time and at a low cost.
In this magnetic transfer system, the preformat recording is performed in a manner that information (for example, information of a servo signal for tracking etc.) recorded on a master disk (master recording medium) is transferred by applying a magnetic field for transfer to one side or both sides, with the master disk adhered to a magnetic transfer disk (magnetic recording medium, slave disk), using a magnetic field application device such as an electromagnetic device or a permanent magnet device.
Further, a technique to increase recording density of a magnetic recording medium includes a perpendicular magnetic recording system. The perpendicular magnetic recording, compared to a conventional case of recording by using an in-plane magnetization film for magnetic layer, is improved in recording density, but it has a different record reproduction system. Therefore, as described above, when the preformat recording is performed in batch by the magnetic transfer system, a different system from the case of using the in-plane magnetization film is used.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-40544 discloses the invention that, when preformatted information is recorded by perpendicular magnetic recording on a magnetic transfer disk having a magnetic recording layer composed of a perpendicular magnetization film, the preformatted information is transferred and recorded by vertically applying a magnetic field to the magnetic transfer disk and the master disk.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-297433 discloses the invention that, when preformatted information is recorded by perpendicular magnetic recording on a magnetic transfer disk having a magnetic recording layer composed of a perpendicular magnetization film, the preformatted information is transferred and recorded by applying a magnetic field parallel to the magnetic transfer disk and a master disk.